The New guard, headed by 19 year old Hawaiian John John Florence have taken to the Triple Crown of Surfing by storm. With two out of the three events completed, Surfers in the running for the Triple Crown title apart from ratings leader and Vans World Cup of Surfing Champion John Florence, include Taj Burrows(Reef Hawaiian Pro Champion), Adam Melling, Michel Bourez and Nat Young. Wow that a whole new looking Triple Crown Leaderboard. I think the stand out for everyone this year has been John Florence. He has really burst onto the international seen in a big way this year and it would be amazing to see a 19 year old kid win the Triple Crown of Surfing.

The Triple Crown of Surfing got off to a slow start with average conditions for the Reef Hawaiian Pro and Taj Burrow managed to win that event. That was followed by Macking Sunset beach as surfer where put to the test in 10-12 foot Plus Surf as John Florence Proved victorious over his fellow competitors and the ocean.

Next up is the Billabong Pro in memory of Andy Irons. The swell is predicted to be solid for the event so you don’t want to miss this one. Who do I predict to win? Who else, John John Florence, he is the flavor of the month so why would I bet against him in his own back yard? And don’t forget how he man handled those 10 foot Ballito Barrels at the Mr Price Pro, if that’s anything to go by, and its 10 foot Backdoor, he will be hard to beat!

Greg Emslie

The Hawaiian season is officially under way with the waiting period of the Triple Crown of Surfing kicking off on 12 November; all we need now is the waves that go with it! It has been a small start to the season and things are not looking very promising for the first event, The Reef Hawaiian Pro held at Haleiwa from 12 -23 November.

South Africans competing in the first event include Travis Logie, Roy Bryson, Shaun Joubert, Dale Staples and Rudy Palmboom. All of these surfer charge the solid Hawaiian surf and will be hoping the small surf will increase soon and provide the good scoring potential the big right hand bowls that Haleiwa can deliver.

The Reef Hawaiian Pro is the first of the triple crown events followed by the Vans World Cup Of Surfing at Sunset Beach and then the Jewel of the crown, The infamous Billabong Pipeline Masters held in the exciting and bone crushing waves of the Banzai Pipeline.

I would like to give the Women’s leg of the Hawaiian ASP World tour a mention but there is nothing to mention. The Place you have to go to prove your worth as a surfer has no Womens event this year,  pretty sad when you see how much they have improved over recent years.

Greg Emslie

This has been one crazy week of surfing that has seen the King of Surf, Kelly Slater, crowned for the 11^th time, ASP CEO Brodie Carr Resign due the premature announcement of Kelly’s World Title and Young Brazilian hot shot Gabriel Mendina win his second World tour event out of four!

Kelly Slater is and always will be the King of Surf! Like Mohamed Ali, we will speak about him until we die. His 11^th World title did not come as a shock this week, more expected as he has fended off generations of great surfers. The scary thing is, he has made it quite clear that he is not done yet. Has the new era, with the like of Gabriel Mendina fueled the fire in Kelly? I am afraid so, be prepared for a few more World titles out of the King!

Speaking of Gabriel Mendina, Will Kelly be able to stop this man? Known for pulling 10 point rides at ease, Gabrielle has only been on tour for four World Tour events, and he has managed to secure 2 wins, 50% already. Warning bells are ringing and the surfing world is looking for its next Goofy footed World Champ, could this be our man.

With this all happening, and the premature announcement of Kelly Slaters 11^th World Title win, ASP CEO, Bodie Carr has had to step down. I am afraid it has been a long time coming, and with the future of ASP delicate at the moment, the right man will have to fill the CEO shoes as the new generation of Smith, Wilson, Wright and Mendina step up to the plate!

Greg Emslie

South African Jordy Smith has finished 3^rd in the Oneill Cold Water Classic in testing conditions at Waddell Creek, Santa Cruz, California.

With the Swell dropping at the legendary wave of Steamer lane, surfers had to settle for average conditions at the back up venue of Waddall Creek. Brazilian Goofy footer, Miguel Pupo a new comer on the elite World Tour, had a field day in the small surf as he took to the air at every possible moment leaving the bigger sufers like runner – up Tiago Pires looking for big scores to take the win but he was eventually Combo’d by Pupo who scored high 9 point rides in the final. Miguel had a handy pay day as he won $40K for his win, then on top of that, he top the Oneill Cold Water Classic series win and pocketed another $50K, not a bad pay day at all! Miguel is getting used to winning at an early age as this is his second six star prime win the year as he also took out the Nike 6.0 at Lower Trestles earlier this year.

South African Jordy Smiths 3^rd place finish will go a long way for his confidence for the Rip Curl Search event, Somewhere in San Francisco. After doing all sorts of damage to his ribs, Jordy was basically sidelined for 6 weeks as he had to watch Kelly once again overtake him in the World Title Race. With just 2 events remaining on the World Tour, San Francisco and the infamous Pipeline, Jordy will be looking for a strong finish in order to get his confidence up for next years World Title campaign.

Fellow Saffa, Travis Logie will be joining Jordy as he too will be looking for a strong finish as he will want to retain his spot on the World Tour come the end of year cut-off after Pipe.

The Rip Curl Search San Francisco starts tomorrow 1 November and runs until 12 November.

Adriano de Souza has defeated Kelly Slater in the Rip Curl Pro Portugal. The event was held in epic surf at Supertubos, Peniche with surf ranging between 4-8 feet. This contest was one of the best events wave wise in the history of the ASP and although the final still had excellent waves, it was a bit of an anticlimax compared to the rest of the event where competitors were scoring 18+ heat totals.

The final was full of mind games as Adriano got off to a good start. Adriano held onto the lead the entire heat and despite a great fight back from Kelly Slater, the ocean, in coming tide and dropping swell was against him.

Adriano’s win has moved him into 3^rd place on the World Ratings but the big news is that Kelly Slater’s 2^nd place finish has moved him that much closer to his 11^th World Title. Slater will only need to finish 9^th or better in the upcoming event to seal another World title, so you can pretty much start engraving his name on the trophy again!

Kelly Slater was for me once again the standout of the event but the surfer who caught my eye was young John John Florence. John John is an amazing tube rider as we saw at 10 foot Ballito during the MR Price Pro, but he once again displayed that brilliance as he took down World number 2 Owen Wright. John John ended up loosing to Bede Durbidge is a closely contested round 5 heat, but we are sure to hear a lot more from this Hawaiian kid!

South Africans Jordy Smith and Travis Logie both went down in round 3. Jordy is still not 100 percent after dislocating his rib and lost out to Fred Patachia while Travis lost to the winner of the event Adriano de Souza.

The next event is the Rip Curl Search San Francisco from 1 – 12 November.

Greg Emslie

This last week has seen the best juniors in the world light up the surfing stage with some impressive performances. Gabriel Mendina has won his first World Tour event at a tender age of 17, and although he should have still been competing in the Oakley World Pro Junior, he qualified for the World Tour 2 months ago and decided to take down 10 times World Champion Kelly Slater instead at the Quiksilver Pro France!

Mendina took out Kelly in the Quarter finals of the event, then went on to take out Jordy Smith in the semis, followed by another new school sensation, Julian Wilson in the final. If this is not sending out warning signals then I don’t know what is as the young Brazilian blasted his way to the win with a few nine point rides and even a perfect 10 thrown into the mix on his way to the win in the high performance 3-4 foot waves. If you don’t know too much about Gabriel Mendina, know this, he WILL win more than 1 World Title!

On the other side of the World, in Bali, I had the pleasure of commentating the Oakley World Pro Junior. The surfing was impressive as I watched the future stars take to the water. Australian Davey Cathels won the event over California’s Andrew Doheny in what was one of the best final I have ever watched! The boys blasted 8 point plus rides throughout the final going blow for blow in the great 4 foot waves of Canngu, with Cathels being the deserved winner!

South Africans in the event were looking strong until a bit of bad luck set in on Bad South Africa day, and they all went down as did the Springboks on Sunday 9 October!

Travis Logie has performed brilliantly as he earned a 3^rd place finish in the Billabong Pro Tahiti, his best ever finish in a World Tour event! On his way to this fantastic result, Travis earned huge respect as he took down big names, Jordy Smith, Chris Davidson and an on-form Brett Simpson.

It is hard to believe that this massive result has only left Travis at 34^th in the World, however with fingers crossed, lets hope he gets a spot in the up-coming New York event and breaks into the top 32 and re-qualifies!

Kelly Slater won the event with mind-blowing surfing and has seen him take the rating lead yet again. Kelly is the master, and although there was a lot of talk about him missing JBay, the practice he got at massive Fiji put him in good stead to win this event.

The contest was one of the best ever watched online with twitter and facebook sites going off as tweets and comments flooding in about the contest. The event did not go off without controversy, with the now famous heat between Jordy Smith and Travis Logie being re-surfed after Jordy Cracked a rib, and the heat was put on hold. Jordy won the heat that was then re-surfed with Travis the victor in the second heat, and then went on to make the semi-final. The heat was put on hold due to the water ambulance seeing to Jordy, and without another water ambulance on-site, the heat had to be stopped. This gave Jordy time to get back in the water and win the heat, after a Protest by Travis Logie, the heat was re-surfed and the tables were turned.

Then we had the tow session day that saw some of the craziest tow in waves ever surfed. Even Kelly Slater did not want a part of it!

All in all this is probably the most followed contest ever, and what a great show it was!

Greg Emslie 

South African Royden Bryson has found himself on an amazing roll of late with another fantastic 3^rd place finish, this time at the Relentless Boardriders held in Newquay, U.K. Royden has now had 5 solid results out of the last 6 major events including a 13^th and a 9nth place finish in Brazil, a 9^th place in Portugal, a 5^th at the US Open last week, and now a 3^rd in the Relentless Boardriders! Before Brysons roll started, he was a lowly 111^th position on the One World ratings and this string of results has catapulted him into 55^th place on 11 999 points, a solid 56 position jump! With results like these, Royden should be well on his way to qualification but the ASP have made such a hash of there ratings systems, that the talented goofy footer will need to gain in excess of 9000 points to reach his goal, this is mind boggling after the dream run he has had!!!!!

This Saturday, 20 August sees the start of the infamous Billabong Pro Tahiti. South Africa’s own Jordy Smith will go into the event as World Number 2 and will be looking to knock Joel Parkinson off the top spot. The swell charts are looking great for the event and we could see the kick off in some sizeable surf!

On the local front we have the Western Province Open this weekend. Surf is also looking solid for the event and it will be a mobile event between Milnerton and Melkbos.

Greg Emslie

South African Royden Bryson has found himself on an amazing roll of late with another fantastic 3^rd place finish, this time at the Relentless Boardriders held in Newquay, U.K. Royden has now had 5 solid results out of the last 6 major events including a 13^th and a 9nth place finish in Brazil, a 9^th place in Portugal, a 5^th at the US Open last week, and now a 3^rd in the Relentless Boardriders! Before Brysons roll started, he was a lowly 111^th position on the One World ratings and this string of results has catapulted him into 55^th place on 11 999 points, a solid 56 position jump! With results like these, Royden should be well on his way to qualification but the ASP have made such a hash of there ratings systems, that the talented goofy footer will need to gain in excess of 9000 points to reach his goal, this is mind boggling after the dream run he has had!!!!!

This Saturday, 20 August sees the start of the infamous Billabong Pro Tahiti. South Africa’s own Jordy Smith will go into the event as World Number 2 and will be looking to knock Joel Parkinson off the top spot. The swell charts are looking great for the event and we could see the kick off in some sizeable surf!

On the local front we have the Western Province Open this weekend. Surf is also looking solid for the event and it will be a mobile event between Milnerton and Melkbos.

Greg Emslie

Royden has hit a major role of late as he has had three fantastic results out of the last four prime events! To join his 13^th in Brazil and 9^th in Portugal was this weeks 5^th place finish at the prestigious US Open of surfing held at Huntington Beach California.

Royden was impressive as he took out some big names including World Tour surfer Jadson Andre.

Roydens great run came to an end in the Quarter Finals against an on form Australian, Yadin Nicol. Yadin went on to finish second to a rampant Kelly Slater who was determined to show the World that he is still the best, especially after a lot of bad press from missing the Billabong Pro JBay.

Roydens Result has pushed him into 64^th Position on the One World Ratings. Travis Logie is at 44^th so lets hope these boys can pull off some big results in the second half of the year and make it back onto the World Tour where they belong!

This week sees the start of the 6 Star Relentless Energy drink Boardriders Pro in Newquay, UK. There is a solid South African contingent at the event and it will conclude on the 14 August. Included in the South Africans in the event are current top 100 surfer on the One World Ratings, Travis Logie, Royden Bryson, Shaun Joubert and Brandon Jackson.

This event is the start of a long and grueling European leg that can make or break a surfer. Included in this leg of the tour are 1 Prime event, 3 6 Star events and a 5 Star event.

Greg Emslie